Case Study: Special Olympics

How do you unlock the full potential of your digital fundraising program?

The Challenge

Special Olympics International (SOI) stands as a widely recognized organization distinguished by its world-renowned brand and unwavering mission. In 2018, SOI turned to us with the goal of unlocking the full potential of its digital fundraising program. Through ongoing collaboration and experimentation, we have helped drive SOI’s program's growth and incorporate diverse digital channels and advertising formats. We are proud to continue our work with Special Olympics to grow revenue and make a real difference for people with intellectual disabilities.

Markets & Services

Strategy

Data-based optimizations

We began by thoroughly examining SOIs paid search, paid social, and display advertising campaigns. This audit was crucial in improving existing campaigns and discovering new paid media opportunities immediately. Our ongoing strategic testing and refinements have significantly increased revenue from its paid social and search advertising efforts.

Creative

Eye-catching creative & powerful concepts

To improve results across digital channels, we have worked with the SOI team to test and scale a variety of campaign concepts – from emotional stories to new messaging techniques to stronger CTAs, all geared towards amplifying audience engagement and fostering the expansion of new donors.

Emerging Chanels

Emerging channels play a pivotal role

From the success of our paid media management, we were able to also lead SOI’s ongoing and evolving connected TV/OTT campaign initiative, leveraging traditional direct response digital TV platforms (e.g., Hulu, YouTube TV, Discovery+, etc.). This initiative boosted organizational awareness among new audiences and drove growth for the organization’s monthly giving program. Our ever-evolving strategy regularly includes new publishers, retargeting strategies and creative iterations, and it has been an integral part of the strong sustainer growth for Special Olympics.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Fundraising-driven SEO leads to over a million new web users

SEO can play an important role in any fundraising program by driving website visits from new and qualified audiences. When tasked with boosting the organization’s SEO performance, we discovered impactful content opportunities through in-depth keyword research. By creating content around the theme of the 'R Word,' we helped bring over 1 million new users to SOI’s website (and the number continues to grow) for content consumption and additional engagement.

Collaboration

Partnerships for the win

We take pride in being exceptional partners. During our collaboration with the SOI team, we've had the pleasure of working alongside their outstanding partners to implement a more unified and coordinated program across both online and offline channels - including direct mail, telemarketing and canvassing.

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